This image to the right, released by the North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), was taken within seconds of the one to its left (released by Kyodo News). An analysis shows that the right-hand image was digitally altered, removing the cluster of men from the left edge and enhancing the perfect line of mourners.

KCNA/Kyodo News

Originally published on March 29, 2013 1:16 pm

Perhaps we should be up in arms, if you'll excuse the pun, but we can't claim to be shocked that North Korea has released what appears to be another doctored photo.

In this one, as The Atlantic's Alan Taylor pointed out, several hovercraft seem to have been copied, pasted and poorly smudged into a scene illustrating North Korean military drills.

NPR originally included the photograph on a blog post. Getty Images, the wire service that provided the image, has since removed it from its website but has not issued a statement.

Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin wrote that perhaps the bigger error in these situations is not necessarily the actual photo manipulation — since we kind of suspect it — but the fact that we continually publish these government-issued images.

On the other hand, the manipulated photos are often exposed eventually. And more to the point, they may not be intended for Western audiences. They are probably more useful as domestic propaganda in places like North Korea and Iran.